WOAD Quick Start

Running Woad

To run WOAD on a directory that contains HTML documents:

    woad source=directory

If that directory is visible on a server, add ``target=host:port source=directory'' to the command.

If the documents are in a subdirectory, e.g., ``.../subdir'', add ``offset=/subdir''

WOAD's annotations and indices will normally be in your home directory in a subdirectory called .woad -- This can be changed by specifying ``-root directory''.

Examples:

For example, if you have a typical Red Hat Linux installation, use:

    ~/PIA/src/app/tools/woad-index.pl source=/home/httpd/html -y
    woad source=/home/httpd/html target=localhost:80

The -y appended to the index command makes a cross-reference index for definitions, but not their uses. If you have lots of space or a small web site, change the -y to -x. If you want to see the cgi-bin and icons directories as well, use:

    ~/PIA/src/app/tools/woad-index.pl source=/home/httpd offset=/html -y
    woad source=/home/httpd offset=/html target=localhost:80 \
         aliases="/cgi-bin,/icons" offsets="/cgi-bin,/icons"

On a Windows machine you currently have to substitute

    pia -site %PIA_HOME%/Apps/Woad/woad.xcf -vroot

for woad in the sample commands.

If you have a personal copy of the PIA running, you can also use Woad to view and annotate it. To create the index, use the command:

    ~/PIA/src/app/tools/woad-index.pl source=$HOME/PIA root=$HOME/.pia

Adding a -x option to that command will also build a cross-reference index. WARNING: This is a space and memory hog! It currently takes 240MB of RAM to build the index, and 170MB of disk to store it. If you don't index your PIA, the PIA will use the public WOAD server for its source viewing.

Note:

If you have a PIA server already running, you will have to stop and re-run it before the new indices will be visible.

For another example, here (slightly cleaned up) are the commands we use to view and index a local Apache-based application:

    ~/PIA/src/app/tools/woad-index.pl \
         source=/mnt/lena/localdisk/home/web/apache-conf \
         target=lena:80 offset=/php -root .woad.lena -x

    woad source=/mnt/lena/localdisk/home/web/apache-conf \
         target=lena:80 offset=/php -root .woad.lena \
         aliases="/cgi-bin,/icons" offsets="/cgi-bin,/icons"

Why Blue? Why Woad?

The short answer is that the plant Isatis tinctoria, common name Dyer's Woad, is a source of the same blue dye that comes from the tropical Indigo plant. It was used for body decoration by the Pictish warriors of ancient Britain, so when ``Web Oriented Application Development'' came up in the search for an acronym, the analogy between ``Code Warrior'' and ``Woad Warrior'' made it irresistible.

More information about Woad can be found in the references section of About WOAD.

Woad Warrior

Woad Warrior is a version of WOAD intended for use by developers and web application designers working on multiple projects at the same time. It is a personal web application designed to run on a developer's desktop computer. It lets you define multiple ``projects,'' and view them all on the same server.

Woad Warrior is not implemented yet. You can get a vague idea of its eventual flavor by following this link to its ``home page'', but it won't really do anything for you at this point.